Cleanse/how the body relates to the archive
2023
2023
Installation
In a more and more digitalized world, materiality and the physical „environment“ have become
increasingly distant and abstract ideas. The term„matter“ in the sense of „material“ has lost its clearvdefinition. Moments of physical experience and involvement of the human body are outsourced intovdigital spaces on computers, phones, servers , the internet - the cloud. Looking at content in general,vit has become part of mass production and mass consumption, loosing its individual value and merging into the vast spheres of overloaded digital archives and storages. Limitation is the past. At the same time we loose touch of our bodies, while we scroll through „sterile“ landscapes. The digital archives keep growing and build their own „body“ and voice, perhaps forming its own poetry of unlimited interlacing.
As a performative ritual, I am confronting myself with my ungraspable digital image and video archive to rebuild a relationship with the imagery. I sit down to „cleanse“ my smartphone photos and videos, facing memories and emotions of the past, having to decide which ones are worth to keep, and which ones have lost value. In this process od deletion and selection, many intimate moments arise, triggering the reflection of life and desires, swipe by swipe. All deleted photos and videos of each session are then uploaded to a temporary cloud storage, to generate a URL-Link. This code is then painted on washed and scraped paintings on canvas, that were sorted out. They are soaked in salt and water and hung up to dry as wet towels. The link expires after 5 days and the imagery dissapears in the aether of the internet. In this practice the trivial moment of deleting images digitally is confronted with the arduous process of removing paint from canvas. Selected images are extracted and brought back to life, for example by carrying small prints in pants and jacket pockets for several
months.
The project is an attempt to understand the emotions and value attached to digital imagery and their relation to the world of matter. At the same time, by using salt and water, it references a cleansing and healing process, as these materials are considered materials to clean ones body and soul.
The project was realized during an Artist-In-Residency Program at Daegu Art Factory, Daegu, South Korea.
increasingly distant and abstract ideas. The term„matter“ in the sense of „material“ has lost its clearvdefinition. Moments of physical experience and involvement of the human body are outsourced intovdigital spaces on computers, phones, servers , the internet - the cloud. Looking at content in general,vit has become part of mass production and mass consumption, loosing its individual value and merging into the vast spheres of overloaded digital archives and storages. Limitation is the past. At the same time we loose touch of our bodies, while we scroll through „sterile“ landscapes. The digital archives keep growing and build their own „body“ and voice, perhaps forming its own poetry of unlimited interlacing.
As a performative ritual, I am confronting myself with my ungraspable digital image and video archive to rebuild a relationship with the imagery. I sit down to „cleanse“ my smartphone photos and videos, facing memories and emotions of the past, having to decide which ones are worth to keep, and which ones have lost value. In this process od deletion and selection, many intimate moments arise, triggering the reflection of life and desires, swipe by swipe. All deleted photos and videos of each session are then uploaded to a temporary cloud storage, to generate a URL-Link. This code is then painted on washed and scraped paintings on canvas, that were sorted out. They are soaked in salt and water and hung up to dry as wet towels. The link expires after 5 days and the imagery dissapears in the aether of the internet. In this practice the trivial moment of deleting images digitally is confronted with the arduous process of removing paint from canvas. Selected images are extracted and brought back to life, for example by carrying small prints in pants and jacket pockets for several
months.
The project is an attempt to understand the emotions and value attached to digital imagery and their relation to the world of matter. At the same time, by using salt and water, it references a cleansing and healing process, as these materials are considered materials to clean ones body and soul.
The project was realized during an Artist-In-Residency Program at Daegu Art Factory, Daegu, South Korea.
